Prior art photoinitiator systems comprising an aromatic carbonyl compound and a reducing agent are known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,807. In it are enumerated a great many aromatic carbonyl compounds, including acetophenone, 4-tolyl acetophenone, benzophenone, 3-tolyl benzophenone, fluorenone, anthraquinone, xanthone and thioxanthone. Reducing agents mentioned includes amines, viz. tertiary amines such as triethanolamine and methyldiethanolamine. Photopolymerizable compositions are also known from British Patent Specification No. 1,408,265, which also mentions a great many aromatic carbonyl compounds, including benzil, benzil derivatives, naphthyl, phenanthraquinone, benzophenone, benzoin, benzoin ethers and fluorenone.
Although these prior art photoinitiator systems may be satisfactorily applied for various purposes, a particular problem exists in completely and rapidly curing material having a thickness of 1-20 mm. Moreover, in the case of polymerizable, polyethylenically unsaturated compounds such as methacrylate resins that are sensitive to air inhibition, there is the problem of insufficient surface hardening, which manifests itself in a tacky surface. For optimum properties, there are two requirements: the material should be both thoroughly cured and of a good surface hardness.
Often the known photoinitiator systems satisfy only one of the two requirements. In actual practice, it has therefore often been found necessary to isolate the surface to be cured from the ambient air by covering it with a transparent film to obtain a satisfactory surface hardness and/or to use prolonged exposure times for thorough curing.